Posted on 09/20/2022 12:27:44 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right” (Proverbs 20:10).
Weights as in the weights on a balance scale, measures like yardsticks and rulers. Divers weights, as in different ones; that is, it is not what it is supposed to be. It is an ounce over or an inch off. It is for the purpose of defrauding a man’s customers, in order to profit the merchant unlawfully. We see similar verses in Proverbs 11:1 and 16:11.
The whole thing here in Proverbs 20 seems to break pattern. Solomon’s been talking about judgment, such as verse 8: “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin.” People at the judgment will try to make that statement, but it will never hold up. This describes the time when people will ask the Lord, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Matthew 7:22). The only thing they will hear from the Lord’s lips will be, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity . . . I never knew you.”
And then he speaks about “divers weights, and divers measures,” which may be one thing that will brought up at the judgment about how people used these things to cheat other people. Even more to the point is how many people are relying on their own standard of goodness to presume that they are a Christian. Man’s standard of “good enough” is not equal to God’s standard of “absolute perfection.” Jesus spoke on this when He said, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). In other words, He was saying, “If you can’t do better than the high standard of the scribes and Pharisees, what makes you think you can even reach God’s standard?” People that are trying to “earn” their way into heaven are using “divers weights, and divers measures.”
If a full-grown adult is known, then even a little child is known. In other words, God is going to judge us according to our actions and attitudes. “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).
What do we know about a man? We know that he is a sinner. A man will eventually lie to you and cut corners. At some point he will not be true even to his own convictions, let alone Bible convictions. “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right,” and it seems that this verse is talking about is whether that child is still under innocency or not. That is, whether that child’s doing is still under the protection of God. A baby is not “saved,” no matter how many times it is sprinkled in some church. A baby, up to a certain age, is considered “safe.”
Paul wrote: “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Romans 7:9). The instant a child knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses to do wrong—he becomes a sinner in need of a Saviour. That age is different from one child to another. A child brought up in a Christian home where the Bible is honored and taught from their earliest days, that age could be as young as three-years-old. In a godless home, the age could be as high as seven. Only God and the child know when the knowledge of sin begins.
A child of God is known by his doings also: “But if any man love God, the same is known of him” (I Corinthians 8:3). He is known by his doings if he is praying, if he is witnessing, if he spends time in the Word of God, if he loves preaching, those are all pretty good evidences that he is, in truth, a child of God. He is known by his doings. If you want to judge whether his work is “pure and right,” you watch what they are doing, and judge them by the Word of God—certainly not by your own Christianity. That would likely be “divers weights, and divers measures.”
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